What you perceive as normal behavior is highly influenced by what you've exposed yourself to in your environment and the media throughout your entire life. My friend and wingman Vain is constantly quoting movies and TV shows he has watched several times and it feels completely normal for him to do it. There are plenty of blatant examples one can think of such as direct quoting, but more importantly the things you expose yourself to influence more subtle behavior that develop your character.

For example, if you watch a lot of movies with Marlon Brando, you'll eventually start acting more alpha even if it isn't a conscious effort. If you watch a lot of anime, you'll eventually turn out to be really weird.

Funny people became funny because the people they surrounded themselves with were funny, they watched a lot of stand-up comedy, and a lot of comedy movies.

If you want to develop good sarging habits, you have to first make it normal to surround yourself with positive PUA influences, such as watching in-field videos all the time, watching that Mystery Montage youtube video all the time, and hanging out with people who actually talk to and successfully seduce women all the time.

This also includes cutting out negative influences that develop your behavior in the opposite direction. These bad influences include porn, hanging out with awkward virgins with no desire to change, anime cartoons (except cowboy bebop), and movies with chode protagonists. Porn gives people the wrong impression of the seduction process. The people you surround yourself with influence what is normal and acceptable social behavior. Anime makes you weird. The good guys in movies set the rules on whats right and wrong.

Use this thread to list out both positive influences to expose yourself to and to list negative influences to avoid.

Cool post. I think it really underscores the concept of people being a product of their environment, and you make a good point about the fact that we have the power (in most cases) to change that environment.

Anyhow, I've got one negative influence for people that are a little older to watch out for. I'm recently divorced, and most of my friends are in their late 20s/early 30s and are either married or in serious LTRs. The one big negative influence from this is that even if these are the same guys that I used to go out sarging with back in the day, we no longer share a common outlook on relationships. They all figure "let's find a way to hook this guy up with a wife and bring him back into the married club", while I feel liberated and really want to meet different women and enjoy life for the foreseeable future. If I'm around them too long, I start to feel guilty about being single and start getting sucked into that mindset of looking for a wife and settling into a shell, which is really counter-productive.

Unfortunately, this isn't an influence I can completely cut out of my life, because my friends are still awesome and I'd never want to lose them. However, I think it's important to find a way to block that particular influence out of your mindset. Me moving to another country helped to an extent, but that's obviously not something everyone can do. Something that can help is to make sure that you dedicate yourself to regularly going out with the express purpose of picking up (solo or with a wing), instead of always hanging out with the boys for a beer or doing the couples BBQ thing...

chief brilliant post. perception is projection. we percept so much influencial agents of socialisation every day - because there is so much happening at once in the world its impossible to block out all negative aspects - such as turning on the TV and seeing an advert which will affect u badly - such as saints row.
however we can choose some aspects of our perception through our optional agents of socialisation such as -
media (you can CHOOSE to watch a film that will affect you positivley)
religion (as funny as it sounds pickup is my religion because i choose it to be - and its a positive aspect of my projection)
work place (to a certain extent - you can choose where you work or at least who you work with)
peer groups (you have 100% free choice on this)

the only agent of socialisation you cant control in fact is primary - that of the parents.

consider your yin. and your yang. yin = yang. perception is projection. although your perception may be stronger than your projection of something - it will still affect you. this post is a lil over the place tbh - hope that made sense lol
V1V

Im guessing this is the video you were talking about Chief..

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34VTCjRymhE[/youtube]

I just saw episodes 2 and 3 of the second season of Keys to the VIP.

Guys, those episodes were GREAT. Episode two featured a guy named Ajay, who was obviously well read on community material. He executed his shit beautifully. Episode 3 had this caveman guy who went into a set with a mouth full of sandwich. They also had this Portuguese guy unknowingly implementing the Rake strategy discussed in Robert Green's The Art of Seduction. These were really great examples of sarging.

If you don't already watch Keys to the VIP, make an effort to make it one of your positive influences that you grow accustomed to. We all know and have seen the episode featuring Cajun, the Mystery Method instructor. Looks like the show has gotten a lot of better with more PUAs since then.

Keys to the VIP is SO MUCH better than VH1's The Pickup Artist now.

Chief you forgot to mention to stay away from marching band kids

_________________
I'm addicted to facing my fears.

i downloaded the whole of season 2 through a torrent site. good to see some techniques in action.

hahahahaha,,,,that made me chuckle

You're not allowed to talk about torrents here.

Funny, I was just thinking about this today, but in terms of music.

For instance, I've been listening to a lot of Reel Big Fish, Mustard Plug, and A Tribe Called Quest. Reel Big Fish and Mustard Plug write some damn good tunes, but a lot of the lyrics are really AFC: one-itis or being stuck on old girlfriends, taking pride in being "dateless losers", and not taking control of their lives.

A Tribe Called Quest, on the other hand, is pretty good PUA music. Has a relaxed vibe, confident (but not boasting/bragging) lyrics, a healthy enthusiasm for women (listen to "Bonita Applebum" by them), and a generally positive outlook.


I don't think I'll be giving up my beloved punk, ska, etc any time soon... I'll just have to balance it out with something else.

_________________
If you've never failed, you've never lived.